There is a couch in your basement that has not been sat on in three years. A dresser in the spare room with a broken drawer and a wobbly leg. A dining table that survived two moves and looks like it. You want it gone. The problem is figuring out how.
Old furniture is the worst category of stuff to get rid of. It is too big for the trash, too heavy for your car, too worn for Goodwill, and too awkward for a transfer station run without help. Most people just live with it until they cannot stand it anymore. Here is what your options actually are — and when it makes sense to just hire someone to haul it.
Why old furniture is so hard to get rid of
The trash company will not take it. Most municipal trash services in Massachusetts have a size limit — usually items need to fit in the barrel or be broken down small enough to fit in bags. A couch does not fit in a barrel. A dresser does not fit in a bag.
Some towns offer bulky-item pickup days once or twice a year. Billerica, Chelmsford, and Tewksbury all have them. The catch is scheduling — you wait for the date, you call to register the item, and you hope the item is still acceptable. Some towns exclude upholstered furniture entirely. Others charge a per-item fee on top of your taxes.
The donation route has its own problems. Goodwill, Savers, and Habitat ReStore all accept furniture, but they have standards. A couch with stains, tears, or pet damage will be refused. A dresser with a broken drawer will be refused. A table with a wobbly leg will probably be refused. Donation centers are not in the furniture repair business — they need items that can go straight to the sales floor.
When donation actually works
If the furniture is in decent shape — no major stains, no structural damage, nothing broken — donation is the cheapest option. Free pickup, and the item gets a second life.
Habitat ReStore is usually the easiest for furniture. They pick up for free in most of the Merrimack Valley, and they accept couches, tables, dressers, bed frames, and chairs. The standards are reasonable — the item needs to be sellable, not perfect. A couch with minor wear is fine. A couch with a cigarette burn is not.
Goodwill and Savers take furniture too, but pickup is less consistent. Some locations will pick up, others will not. You may need to drop it off yourself, which means a truck and a helper.
If the furniture is in good shape, try donation first. It is free, and it is the right thing to do. If it is not in good shape, skip to the next section.
The transfer station route — cheapest if you have a truck
Every town in our service area has a transfer station or dump that accepts furniture. The fee is usually $10 to $30 per item, depending on the town and the size. Billerica, Chelmsford, Tewksbury, and Lowell all take furniture at their transfer stations.
The catch is getting it there. A couch does not fit in a sedan. A dresser might, if you remove the drawers and angle it right, but you are still lifting 100-plus pounds and hoping nothing scratches the interior. Most people end up borrowing a truck, recruiting a friend, and spending a Saturday morning on it.
If you have a truck, a helper, and a free morning, the transfer station is the cheapest route. $10 to $30 per item beats our $90 every time. We will tell you that on the phone if you call and ask.
What about leaving it on the curb?
Some people put old furniture on the curb with a "free" sign and hope someone takes it. This works about 30 percent of the time, in my experience. The rest of the time, it sits there for a week, gets rained on, and then you have a waterlogged couch on your curb that your neighbors are not thrilled about.
If you are going the curb route, put it out on a Friday evening or Saturday morning when foot traffic is highest. Take a photo and post it on Facebook Marketplace or your town's Buy Nothing group. The combination of a visible curb listing and an online post raises the odds considerably.
The risk: if nobody takes it and your town's trash crew will not pick it up, you are back to figuring out disposal. Some towns will cite you for leaving furniture on the curb beyond a certain number of days. Check your town's bylaws before committing to this approach.
What old furniture removal actually costs
Here is our pricing, flat and all-in — labor, loading, hauling, and disposal included:
| Volume | Flat base price | What fits |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 items | $90 | A dresser, a bed frame, a table, a couple of chairs |
| Truck load | $250 | A full pickup truck bed of furniture and misc items |
| Half trailer | $425 | Multiple rooms worth — a couch, a bed, dressers, tables |
| Full trailer | $650 | Whole-house cleanout or estate cleanout volume |
- Weight multiplier: standard furniture is 1.0×. Heavy items (solid wood dressers, pianos, marble-topped tables) run 1.2× to 1.45×.
- Stairs: one flight adds $40. Two or more adds $80. If the furniture is on the ground floor, no add-on.
- Over 8 items: $4 per item beyond the first 8.
- Quotes carry roughly ±15% until we see the job. We say that up front, not on the invoice.
How the process works
You text a few photos of the furniture and your town. We send back one flat price within 24 hours. You pick a two-hour window — same day or next day is often available in Billerica and the surrounding area.
The crew shows up in the window, carries the furniture out, and sweeps up behind themselves. You pay after the job, only when you are happy — cash, check, Venmo, Zelle, or card. No deposit up front.
A Saturday job in Billerica: a customer texted photos of her basement in the morning. She had a flat quote back within the hour, and the whole thing was gone by Tuesday. That is what "gone by next week" actually looks like.
When you should not hire us for this
If you have one piece of furniture, a truck, and a free hour, the transfer station is cheaper. $10 to $30 beats $90, and we will tell you that on the phone.
If the furniture is in good shape, try donation first. Habitat ReStore picks up for free. No reason to pay us when someone will come take it for nothing.
We are the answer when the furniture is heavy, the stairs are steep, the truck is not available, or you just do not want to spend your Saturday wrestling a dresser down a flight of stairs. That is what the $90 is for.